Colleges with dance programs

[chaperone]

My daughter(15) is starting to think about which colleges she should look into for the future that has a pretty good dance program. She is thinking of studying another major with a minor in dance. She would like to know if dance(if you are pretty good and attended some of the best SI's) can help you getting into a decent college and if some colleges even offer scholarships to students that are very good.

[Victoria Leigh]

Chaperone, I think that if she is a well trained dancer at an advanced level, she is going to want a good program, not just an okay program. I would look into the best dance schools and find the ones which also offer a strong program in her major area. As far as the dance helping her get accepted, I doubt it will help in terms of scholarship, or even acceptance, since it would not be her major.

[mom1]

Four years ago a dancer from our school, who was an advanced dancer, received offers from both University of South Carolina ($10,000 a year) and University of Alabama (full scholarship). Alabama required her to major in dance, but USC did not. Ulitmately, she decided not to dance, and went somewhere else, as neither of these programs offered training even close to the caliber that she was used to. And even though it shouldn't have mattered, since she wasn't interested in majoring in dance, it did.

[2marzipans]

When my daughter and I checked out colleges with good dance programs, we found that in order to get a high quality program and the intensity in the classes she would want, you most often have to major in dance. By being a dance major, you have first choice for the classes, and sometimes as a minor, certain classes will not even be available to you. I'm sure there are colleges out there with a good program as a minor, but we never found one. Hopefully, someone will post about one here for you. For her to major in something else, we found it was recommended that she do a double major - dance and academic. My friend's daughter is a dance major at Goucher College, and loves the intensity of the program. It is also a college with strong academics, and while she is not a double major at this time (she's going into her sophomore year), she knows other kids who are going that route. The work load to keep up with a good dance program and another major will be intense, but it is possible. My daughter was accepted with a scholarship to NCSA in the BFA program as a ballet major last fall, but decided to go to CPYB instead, partly because of the distance from home. We had considered Dickinson College in Carlisle at one point, but to do CPYB's schedule and be a full-time student at Dickinson would be difficult. She will be a part-time college student in the fall, and attending CPYB for the second year, so right now, she decided not to go to college for dance. As far as a scholarship goes, you never know. My friend's daughter at Goucher received both academic(renewable for four years) and dance scholarships as a freshman applicant. My daughter went on a few interviews for college admission, and every time she talked about how she studied dance intensively and mentioned her performances and SI's, it was greeted with great interest. I think it helps them to stand out as applicants. Of course, it helps to have good grades and AP courses are a big plus, which my daughter did take. I think if your daughter isn't involved with a number of after-school activities, the intensive dance commitment does help. Colleges seem to like seeing a long-term involvement with one thing. It even helped my older daughter get accepted to her college, and she wasn't dancing anymore by the time she was a senior. Good luck to you with your search!

[Treefrog]

Chaperone, it would help to know more about how your DD views her future in dance. Does she want to dance at a level that might lead to employment, or just keep doing something she loves? Does she want to maintain her current level of involvement, or is she willing and ready to scale back some?

 

Bear in mind that her answers at 15 -- is she entering 10th grade? -- may be totally different than they will be in two years, when she is ready to apply.

 

We have just been through all this. DD will be entering college next month

She knew for some time that ballet was not going to be a career, so was not looking for intensive training -- just the ability to keep taking a reasonable number of well-taught classes.

 

Given her academic desires, she looked at top-tier colleges (see this thread on Liberal Arts Colleges With Liberal Arts Dance Departments ). Although she loved the dance program at Vassar, she decided to attend Brown because the academic program suited her better. She'll be dancing at Festival Ballet, which is a couple of miles away from campus. And she hopes to dance with one of the on-campus companies.

 

As to your question about whether being a dancer can help get you into college ... I hate to be a cynic, but in the current environment it's not at all clear what gets you in (to the top-tiers, anyway). I'm sure it doesn't hurt, though, and as 2marzipans said, evidence of long-standing commitment to one endeavor is definitely a plus.

[Taradriver]

If dance scholarships are available, you will find they are given to dance majors, not minors. In some cases, a separate audition or videotape/DVD may be required for scholarship consideration.

 

My DD has embarked on her admission adventure already, as she is now an official high school senior (and it came around FAST so you are wise to be looking around now). Based on what we have discovered so far, there ARE some programs that give class preference to majors over minors and some programs offer no performing opportunities to minors. DD plans to double major, at least so far.

[Bubblegirl864]

At SMU in Dallas, the minor has the opportunity to take any of the classes provided to majors. The entrance requirements are the same and minors receive no scholarship money from the dance division. It isn't difficult to double major in many subjects, there are students who double major in english, geophysics, psychology, business, advertising, &chemistry (to name just a few). I'm a double major and love it. I get to major in the two things I love. A dance major requires more hours than engineering at smu, so most of my classes are technique and a few theory classes. WOrks out perfectly for me.

Edited July 27, 2006 by Bubblegirl864

[chaperone]

Thank you all for your responses...and Bubblegirl864 you must be very good at managing your time to be able to double major in engineering and ballet!!

Anyone out there went to med school with a minor in dance? Which schools would you recommend with a good dance(Ballet, jazz or modern) program?

[Bubblegirl864]

Oops, I'm not an engineering major with dance, I meant the number of hours required to graduate is more for dance than for engineering. On another note, SMU offers the chance to study all three of those styles of dance with students dancing professionally in all three fields. Ballet and Modern are the main focuses but jazz is required for everyone.

Edited July 29, 2006 by Bubblegirl864

[pictures]

Have you looked at Stephens College? They will let you double major and offer great scholarships!

[chaperone]

Everyone~

 

Thank you so much for all the information about these colleges. I can't tell you how thankful I am for being able to communicate with mothers and students that have the knowledge and that is willing to share with others! I never thought that after one day of posting I would get such a huge response from people trying to help! Thank you so much!